The present invention relates to an optical-electronic device with at least one infrared radiation-sensitive optical-electronic transducer which conducts or emits infrared radiation.
Optical-electronic thermal imaging cameras are known in which a multitude of infrared sensitive sensors are arranged in the focal plane of lens configuration for infrared radiation, a each of the sensors producing an electric signal relative to the intensity of prevailing infrared radiation. The totality of the electrical signals thus gained, amplified and, if necessary, corrected makes it possible to interpret the heat image, e.g., making it visible to the human eye. Previously, numerous individual sensors for detecting heat images were arranged in a one- or two-dimensional array or field. The most sensitive of these prior arrays exhibit a hybrid arrangement: The individual sensors are positioned on a chip consisting of a narrow-gap semiconductor material. The required electronic circuit configurations for amplifying and multiplexing the electric signals are configured on a second silicon chip. A separate electric connection is required between each sensor and the circuit configuration on the silicon chip, which is very impractical for a larger number of sensors and limits the number of sensors to be combined in one array. So so-called focal plane arrays are described in the periodic conference reports Proc. SPIE, Soc. Opt. Engineering, vol. 409 (1983), and earlier ones and elsewhere.
It is the goal and function of the current invention to create an optical-electronic device of the type described above which, instead of a relatively complicated hybrid configuration, has a considerably simplified monolithic configuration, enabling it, e.g., to integrate an increased number of infrared sensors or infrared-radiation emitting diodes within one device.